TF2's "Replay Update" Adds Video Recording, Movie-Making Contest

Valve's latest TF2 update adds replay recording and editing to the wildly popular multiplayer FPS, and Mann Co. wants to make you a star.

TF2 has many features that make it a great game, like clever map design and an obsession with hats not seen this side of Touhou Project, but one thing it didn't have was an auto-save replay feature or built-in clip editor, like those seen in games like StarCraft and Uncharted 2.

The "Replay Update," as one might imagine, changes that. According to the update page, the game will record every moment of every match you play, and you will be able to edit them afterwards by changing camera angles and adding things like motion blur. You can also upload the videos directly to YouTube, as in Noby Noby Boy.

As with most major TF2 updates, there's a tie-in comic called "Meet the Director," and it may well contain hints at the long-awaited "Meet the Medic" class video - which along with "Meet the Pyro" is almost what, four years overdue at this point? The real purpose of "Meet the Director," though, is to give in-universe justification for the Saxxy Awards.

The Saxxy Awards show is a filmmaking competition similar to The Escapist's own annual film festival. Valve has asked for user submissions in twenty categories ranging from "Most Inventive Kill" and "Most Heroic" to "Best Editing," "Most Extreme Stunt," and the coveted "Best Overall Replay." The rules and regulations can all be found at the Saxxy Awards site.

I'm not sure what winners will get other than praise and a virtual statuette of a naked fictional Australian man, but hey, better that than nothing, right?

Also, the TF2 Replay Update will add more hats to the game. Of course it will.